From the Mind of Trevor Stone

I take a very thorough approach to voting. I spent several hours to find data about things like relative fugitive emissions between states and break-even costs for gas development before deciding how to vote on Colorado's Proposition 112, a measure to increase the required setback for petroleum development.

I also look at the website for every candidate, even minor-party ones, to see what their issues and framing are. This led to a number of interesting findings:

• The Libertarian candidate for Lieutenant Governor has a website, but their running mate just has a Facebook page. Why they don't share a single site is unclear. (The Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates both have an About section for their running mates on their main site.) So much for the early-2000s stereotype that a Libertarian candidate is probably an out-of-work programmer.
• The 90s-retro website award goes to John Bedrick, Republican candidate for Boulder County Sheriff. According to the hit counter at the bottom of the page, I was the 962nd visitor. And although he prominently lists his experience in cyber/data security and privacy, I'm not sure that hosting your campaign page on your business's domain is a great idea. Props for having a Spanish version of the text prominently displayed in parallel with the English.
• Incumbent Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams has an interesting Google problem: when I google [wayne williams] with a Colorado IP address, the top two results are an ad for his campaign website, a normal link to his campaign website, a sidebar for Wayne Williams, American serial killer, and about give other articles about "The Atlanta Killer." Hopefully Colorado voters are able to tell who is who.

The weirdest platform goes to Bill Hammons, national leader of the Unity party and candidate for Colorado Governor. His positions:

1. I Support the Military > If Trump takes the step of firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller, I support the Generals
   In other words, let's have a military coup if Trump gets out of line.
2. Lincoln, D.C. > Ditch the swamp by moving the nation's capital to east of DIA and naming it after one of our greatest Presidents
   How moving the capital would change the dynamics between government, lobbyists, and contractors (or other swamp concerns) is unclear. Also, eastern Colorado doesn't really have the water resources for the couple million people that would come with moving the Beltway.
3. Colorado Constitutional Convention > Our system is broken, and Colorado can host an Article V Constitutional Convention
   This is true of every other state?
4. Eliminate Income Taxes > Replace the Colorado income tax with a revenue measure based on fossil fuel consumption
   Um… the point of a tax on fossil fuels is to get people to use fewer fossil fuels. If Colorado's income tax were replaced with a fossil fuel tax with equal revenue, utilities would quickly switch to renewables (great!) and then the state would face a huge revenue shortfall (crap!) and gasoline taxes would have to rise to match… and slowly erode as people switch to electric cars.
5. Crossroads Colorado > More can be done to promote the advantages of Colorado's central position in the country
   Maybe add "Not at the edge" to the bottom of the "Welcome to Colorful Colorado" highway signs would promote this?
6. Defend Colorado at all Costs > We should demand resurrection of the federal "Star Wars" SDI program with Colorado as its focus
   I guess launching satellites to shoot down Soviet ICBMs targeted at NORAD would be one way to generate revenue from a fossil fuel tax…
7. Colorado Spaceport Development > Since 2010, I've been publicly pushing for more Spaceport development in Colorado
   Is a state with high winds, surprise blizzards, and no ocean a good place to be launching things into space? I guess we're a mile closer to space than those coastal launch sites…
8. Life and Death > I support the Right to Choose, and I also support the Death Penalty
   In short, pro-death.
9. Colorado Gun Rights > Like the rest of the Constitution, I support the Second Amendment as it was written 200 years ago
   The U.S. Constitution was written 231 years ago. Colorado's constitution was written 142 years ago.
10. School Shootings > The FBI needs to be folded into the CIA and domestic surveillance of Social Media increased dramatically
    So… we should treat American teenagers like members of international terrorist organizations?
11. Law Enforcement > We can protect both our law enforcement officers and the public with mandatory and funded body cameras
    Needed to have a reasonable position in here just to keep you on your toes.
12. Care for Coloradans > I myself lost my own health insurance due to Obamacare, and support a Colorado Medicare for All system
    Somehow riding both the talking points from the right and the left.
13. Colorado Life Insurance > Being a Life Producer, I'm a firm believer in the societal benefits of insurance, and support state funding
    Is "Life Producer" a euphemism for parent?
14. Lower the Voting Age to 16 > If you're old enough to drive tons of steel, you should be old enough to vote in the State of Colorado
    A wild reasonable opinion appears.
15. Count Every Vote (CEV) > Counts of all over-votes on ballots encourage desperately-needed competition in our electoral system
    It'll be like Instant Runoff Voting, but less clear.
16. Colorado Redistricting > We need drawing of all legislative districts along competitive lines, including with my Denver 7 plan
    "I'm not gonna link to my plan, though."

It ain't over 'till it's over.

-- Yogi Berra

Don't get cocky, kid!

-- Han Solo

FINISH HIM!

-- Mortal Kombat and tongodeon

I believe that in a generation, we'll look back on next Tuesday as the day hope beat fear. But there's still a chance that fear wins yet again. Obama leads in the polls, but 2000 and 2004 showed the strength of Republican vote suppression techniques. Polls measure how people say they'll vote, but they may not account for the people who try to vote and are prevented. Vote suppression takes many forms: challenging voters (because their driver's license has a middle initial but their voter file does not), misinformation (many Democrats and independents in Virginia received a flier telling them to vote next Wednesday... when it will be too late), poor resource allocation (the big story from Ohio in 2004 was few machines and long lines in black areas but sufficient machines and short lines in white areas), and purges of voter rolls.

Even without intentional voter suppression, elections have a significant margin of error. Voters might have a family crisis crop up and not make it to the polls. Voters can get confused by voting machines or ballot layouts. Touch screen voting machines can be miscalibrated (the official story on why West Virginia voters find their selection of Obama switching to McCain or third party candidates). Mail-in ballots can get lost in the mail or never delivered to voters (Sequoia Voting Systems made an error and didn't print ballots for 11,000 of a batch of 21,000 Denver absentee voters). These are important issues, and may work to the advantage of one side. It's important not to assume malice when incompetence is more likely. It's even more important to make sure neither malice or incompetence has a chance to affect the outcome.

The 2000 election came down to Florida having a vote spread that was within the margin of error. (New Mexico was also that close, but didn't have enough electoral votes to change the outcome.) Even though Obama is leading in the polls, it's important to get as many supporters to vote as possible. The Obama campaign needs to run up the score in swing states to be sure they're above the margin of error so there's no opportunity for the election to be lost through malice (voter suppression, electronic vote hacking) or incompetence (machine or human error on the part of election organizers or voters). Don't let Colorado become The Florida of the West.

You can do your part to help hope win. Obama's website has lots of information about where and when you can volunteer. Their focus is making sure their supporters get to the polls. Volunteer tasks include walking door-to-door with a clipboard or sitting in an office and making phone calls. At this point, if you volunteer you will only talk to people you know support the same candidate. You won't get into an argument with someone who thinks your candidate is a terrorist. You won't have to convince someone who's undecided. All you have to do is ask people "Have you voted yet?" If they have, check them off and nobody will bother them further. If they haven't, make sure they know where their polling place is and that it closes at 7pm. I'm an introvert, but I spent part of my Sunday afternoon canvassing and had a great time. I'm uncomfortable talking to strangers and I can do this. So can you. The Colorado forecast for this is for warm weather and streets full of dry leaves. You'll want to take a walk anyway; contact your local Obama office to canvass. You'll spend three hours enjoying the weather, getting exercise, and helping make history. If you don't live in a swing state or don't like walking, sign up for phone banking. If McCain pulls off an upset, you won't be able to do anything about it next Wednesday. Let's not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

If you can spare a few hours on Tuesday (Election Day), even better. I just signed up to be a poll checker -- comparing the precinct list of people who voted with the campaign's list. If you want to volunteer for that sort of job, you need advanced training, so get in contact soon. They also need canvassers and phone bankers, so show up for a shift if you can. If you volunteer, you'll be able to tell your kids "I did my part to elect an amazing president." Not only that, you'll get one of the most charismatic and thoughtful presidents of the last sixty years. If you don't help get out the vote and a McCain victory in Colorado proves the pivot point for the whole electoral college, you'll spend the next four years with a nagging sense of responsibility every time you grumble about the state of the nation.

I don't agree with everything Obama wants to do and I look forward to opportunities to improve upon his plans. But I'm doing what I can to help him get elected because I think they're the best plans we've had in years. If Obama wins, I feel like the federal government will be on the road to getting better. If McCain wins, I fear the government will only get worse. I hope in a generation I'll have to make a tough choice between the Democrats, Republicans, and other parties. But the McCain campaign has continued the practices that are killing the Republican Party's credibility and value to society. They need to hit rock bottom so they can rebuild right. If McCain gets elected, it will only prolong the victim's suffering.